Setup Information Tab

Use this tab to enter the billing formula and the retainage requirements, billing format, and processing options.

The billing formula and retainage requirements that are entered in this tab apply to every level of the bill that is below the project level identified in the Identification box.  

Two billing calculation value fields are available for entry of additional information needed for specific billing formulas. A description of the information needed displays to the left of the billing calculation value field once a billing formula has bee selected.   

Set up this tab before you calculate bills or enter manual bills. You cannot enter manual bills or calculate bills if you did not set up a record in this screen.  

The posting programs in Costpoint automatically update the Manage Open Billing Detail screen with posted transactions if a transaction-based billing formula exists in this screen. You cannot calculate bills if transactions were not posted to the Open Billing Detail table.

You can change the information in this screen at any time, but if you have unposted bills on the Manage Standard Bills screen, you must recompute them in order for the changes to take affect.

Billing Formula

Enter, or click to select, the billing formula that applies to this project. This billing formula is used to calculate the bill for the project. Refer to "Calculate Bills" for information on how each of the different formulas calculates bills.

There are two types of billings; transaction-based and manual. A transaction-based billing formula is generally based on the transactions that have been charged to the project. The Open Billing Detail table stores the transactional data that is used in the computation of the invoice. This data remains in the Open Billing Detail table until you post the bill. A manual billing does not rely on transactions that have been posted to the project.

If you select a loaded labor type of billing formula, billing rates are an integral part of the billing calculation. For more information on billing rates, see the documentation for the Link Project Labor Categories to Projects screen.

The following is a list of the available billing formulas:

  • Cost Incurred Plus Fee On Cost: This transaction-based formula summarizes the costs incurred by a project and applies burden and fee to those costs. When you calculate bills, Costpoint uses the transactions in the Open Billing Detail table to calculate the invoice. It calculates the burden using the provisional rates on the Pool Rates subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen. The fee is calculated by applying the fee percent entered in this screen to the total of the costs and burden.
  • Cost Incurred Plus Fee On Hours: This transaction-based formula summarizes the costs incurred by a project and applies burden and fee to those costs. When you calculate bills, Costpoint uses the transactions in the Open Billing Detail table to calculate the invoice. The burden is calculated using the provisional rates on the Pool Rates subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen. Costpoint calculates the fee by summarizing the hours incurred on the Manage Open Billing Detail screen and applying the fee per hour entered in this screen.
  • Enter Bill Manually: Use this formula if you use the Manage Project Product Bills, Manage Manual Bills, or Manage Milestone/Percent Complete Bills screens to enter your billings. You must set up a record in this screen so that Costpoint recognizes that the project is billable. Costpoint cannot calculate the invoice automatically if you use this formula. If you need to use the Pay When Paid functionality, select the Manual Bills with Unbilled Detail formula.
  • LLR W/Fee Plus Non-Labor W/Burden W/Fee: Use this formula to bill hours incurred times a billable rate with a fee on that amount plus non-labor costs and fee on non-labor costs. This is a transaction-based formula.  The hours incurred, associated billing rates, and non-labor costs are taken from the Open Billing Detail table. You can set up billing rates in the screens in the Project Labor menu. You must run the Load Labor Rates screen before the bill calculates properly. The fee percents are taken from the Labor Fee Percent and Non-Labor Fee Percent fields on this screen. (These fields display when you select this billing formula.) Costpoint calculates the burden on the non-labor amount by multiplying the non-labor costs by the provisional billing rates. The provisional rate can be found on the Pool Rates subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen.
  • Labor Cost Times Multiplier Plus Non-Labor Times Multiplier (Cost): Use this formula to bill costs incurred times a multiplier. This is a transaction-based formula. The Labor and Non-labor cost amounts are taken from the Open Billing Detail table. Costpoint multiplies the cost amounts by the Labor Multiplier and Non-LaborMultiplier entered in this screen. (These fields display when you select this billing formula.)
  • Labor Cost times Multiplier Plus Non-Labor times Multiplier (Hours): Use this formula to have a multiplier-based billing computed at actual labor rates. This is a transaction-based billing. It is different from the Labor Cost Times Multiplier Plus Non-Labor Times Multiplier (Cost) formula because it computes using actual hourly rates. Costpoint calculates the actual hourly rate by dividing the labor cost by the hours incurred. It inserts this rate into Open Billing Detail when you run the Load Labor Rates utility. It then multiplies this rate by the multiplier in this screen and then by the number of hours in Open Billing Detail. The purpose of this formula is to show a multiplier billing with an hours-based format. The non-labor costs are multiplied by the non-labor multiplier.
  • Loaded Labor Plus Non-labor Plus Burden On Non-labor: Use this formula to bill hours incurred times a billable rate and burdened non-labor costs. This is a transaction-based billing. The hours incurred, non-labor costs, and the billing rate are stored in the Open Billing Detail table. The provisional burden rate is stored on the Pool Rates subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen.
  • Loaded Labor Plus Non-labor W/Burden W/Fee: Use this formula to bill hours incurred times a billable rate and burdened non-labor costs with a fixed fee. This is a transaction-based billing. The hours incurred, non-labor costs, and the billing rate are stored in the Open Billing Detail table. The provisional burden rate is stored on the Pool Rates subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen. You enter the fee that is applied to the non-labor costs in this screen.
  • Loaded Labor Rate: Use this formula to bill hours incurred times a billable rate. This is a transaction-based billing. The hours incurred and the billing rate are stored in the Open Billing Detail table. No non-labor costs are billed and no fee or burden is applied when you use this formula.
  • Loaded Labor Rate Plus Cost Incurred On Non-labor (T&M): Use this formula to bill hours incurred times a billable rate and non-labor costs at actual. This is a transaction-based billing. The hours incurred, non-labor costs, and the billing rate used in the calculation are stored in the Open Billing Detail table. This formula is a standard Time and Materials billing.
  • Loaded Labor w/Burden w/Fee Plus Non-labor w/Burden W/Fee: Use this formula to bill hours incurred times a billable rate with fee and burden, and non-labor costs with fee and burden. This is a transaction-based billing. The hours incurred, non-labor costs, and the billing rate used in the calculation are stored in the Open Billing Detail table. The provisional burden rate is stored on the Pool Rates subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen. Enter the fee used in the calculation in this screen.
  • Manual Bills with Unbilled Detail: Use this formula if you enter bills on the Manage Project Product Bills, Manage Manual Bills, or Manage Milestone/Percent Complete Bills screens but wish to use the Pay When Paid functionality. The Pay When Paid functionality restricts payment to subcontractors or consultants until you have billed your customer and have been paid. The Pay When Paid functionality does not work for fixed-price billings unless you select this formula. If you use this formula, Costpoint populates the Open Billing Detail table when you post transactions. After the bill is posted, the transactions are moved to a transaction history table where they can be flagged as paid or unpaid. No automatic billing calculations are available with this formula.
  • Progress Payment: Use this formula to bill using Government Form 1443. If you select this formula, the calculated bill is on the Manage Progress Payment Billings screen and you can print the bill from the Print Progress Payment Bills screen. This is a transaction-based bill. It uses data from the Manage Open Billing Detail screen. See "Progress Payment Bills" for more information.
  • Rate Schedule Times Multiplier Plus Non-Labor Cost Times Multiplier: Use this formula to bill hours using a variety of billing rates types. With this formula, you must use PLCs with all labor transactions. This is a transaction-based formula. You can set up each PLC to use rate types of A, B, or C. This formula effectively allows the labor portion of the billing to be calculated according to who or what group of employees is charging it. The Include Labor Multiplier in Billing Rate check box is available with this formula. Select this check box to allow the labor multiplier to be calculated in addition to the billing rate. The non-labor section is always computed using a multiplier.
  • Unit Price Transactions Only: Use this billing formula to bill unit transactions only.  Selecting this formula prevents transactions that are posted from Accounts Payable, Journal Entries, and Labor Distribution from populating the Open Billing Detail table. If you select this formula, Open Billing Detail is populated only if you select the Post To Billings check box on the Manage Unit Usage screen. See "Units" for more information on billing units. You should also use this formula if you wish to produce only scheduled bills.
Field Description
Billing Calculation Values (Billing Parameter 1 & 2)

These fields are disabled unless the selected billing formula requires additional information, such as a fee percentage, fee per hour, or multiplier rate. Enter the fee or rate for the billing formula here.

Note: The titles of these fields change, depending on the billing formula chosen.
Include Labor Multiplier in Billing Rate

This check box is enabled only for billing rates that use a multiplier. If you select this check box, the rate you have entered in this group box as a labor multiplier is included in the hourly billing rate. This check box is available only if you select Labor Cost times Multiplier Plus Non-Labor Times Multiplier (Hours) or Rate Schedule Times Multiplier Plus Non-Labor Cost Times Multiplier.

Retainage

Use the fields in this group box to specify how retainage amounts, or retainage withholding amounts, are calculated for this project's billings.

Note: This group box is disabled if the billing formula used for the project is Progress Payment.
Field Description
Basis For Calculation

Use the drop-down list to select the basis for the Costpoint-calculated retainage. It can be based on the fee amount, the total bill amount, or the T&M labor portion of the billing. Valid options are:

  • None
  • Fee Amount
  • T&M Labor Only
  • Total Bill Amt

Select None if you do not want retainage for this project's billings.

Withhold On

Use this drop-down list to calculate the retainage withholding for each billing or as a final amount. Valid options are:

  • Each
  • Final Based On Contract Value
  • Final Based On Funded Value

If you select either Final Based On Funded Value or Final Based on Contract Value, Costpoint calculates the bill and then applies the billing amount to retainage, once the amount billed exceeds the contract value less the retainage amount (retainage amount = retainage percentage multiplied by the contract value). The retainage amount is posted to the account in the project's account group that has a function code of Unbilled-Retain on the Manage Project Account Groups screen.

If you select Final Based on Funded Value or Final Based on Contract Value, you must designate a fee ceiling of B (Billings) or A (Both Revenue and Billings) in the Value Info group box on the Total Ceilings screen of the Manage Project User Flow. Without the billing ceilings, Costpoint cannot calculate retainage on a "Final Amount" basis.

Costpoint does not calculate the retainage on a final bill if the retainage is based on the T&M labor portion of the billing.

Percentage

If Costpoint is set up to calculate retainage amounts, enter the percentage to use for retainage amount calculations.

Maximum Amount (Functional Currency)

Enter the maximum amount or ceiling, in functional currency, of the retainage that can be withheld.

Maximum Amount (Billing Currency)

Enter the maximum amount or ceiling, in billing currency, of the retainage that can be withheld. This field is enabled only if you are licensed for multicurrency, and is editable if it is not the same as your company's functional currency. If the functional and billing currencies are the same, this field displays 0.00.

Format

Use the options in this group box to select the billing format for this project.

Use this group box to select a generic format or the government form 1035 format. You must set up the generic formats on the Manage Generic Billing Formats screen before you can select them in this screen.

If you select the 1443 or 1035 formats, Costpoint automatically uses the function code of the account to group the billable amounts on the lines of the bill. You also must specify the cost plus/fixed price format or the T&M format if you select the government 1035 format.

You can customize the format and the grouping of the billable costs if you select the generic billing format.  

You can also select a supporting schedule format.

Select the format for the bill before you calculate bills. If you need several formats for tasks of the project, set up the billing level at level two or below.  

You can change the format information at any time, but you must recalculate any unposted bills in order for the change in format to take effect.

Field Description
Generic Billing Format

Select this option to use one of your user-defined generic billing formats. In the blank field to the right, enter the generic billing format code that you want to use to determine what the billing format looks like for this bill. You can set up these formats on the Manage Generic Billing Formats screen.

Govt 1443 Billing Format

Select this option to use the Government 1443 (progress payment) billing format. You usually select this format when the billing formula is Progress Payment.

Govt 1035 Billing Format

Select this option to print a standard Form 1035 bill for this project. 1035 bills use the account number to determine how to group costs for billing purposes. Pools are displayed separately.

Government 1035 Format Information

Use the options in this group box to determine the level at which to roll up the account and whether the billing format is T&M or Cost Plus.

Field Description
Print Cost Plus or Fixed Price Format

Select this option to print a Cost Plus 1035 billing format.

Print Using T&M Format

Select this option to print a T&M billing format.

Roll Up Accounts To Level _____

Enter the account level at which to roll up the costs for printing purposes. This field is required if you selected Government 1035 format.

Supporting Schedule Format

Enter the supporting schedule format code, if any, for the detail supporting schedules you want to print for this project's billings. You can set up these user-defined formats on the Manage Supporting Schedule Formats screen.

Controls

Use this group box to select billing options, billing cycle, billing user group, remittance address, income state, and the last bill number.  

The options in this group box control how the bill is calculated, whether or not you can edit the bill, and whether it is included in billing groups or cycles.    

Set up this group box before you calculate bills. You can change the information at any time but you may need to recalculate any bills that were not posted for the changes to become effective.

Field Description
Allow Transactions To Be Partially Billed

Use this check box to regulate the billing of partial transactions. If you select this check box, partial transaction billing are allowed. If you do not select this check box, no partial transactions are allowed. Partial transactions may exist due to a direct cost ceiling or on-hold amounts. For example, if you post a transaction to Open Billing Detail for $1000 and $400 is put on hold, a partial transaction exists in that record. The $600 that is not on hold is included in the bill only if this check box is selected. Also, if a direct cost ceiling of $200 is put on an account and the only transaction posted to that account is for $1000, the $200 under the cost ceiling is included in the bill only if this check box is selected. This happens because the $200 is part of the whole transaction of $1000. If you do not select this check box, the entire $1000 is omitted from the billing.

If items have been partially billed, they appear more than once on supporting schedules (once for each partial billing). To avoid confusion, remind customers of this possible duplication. 

Allow User to Edit Bills

If you select this check box, you can use the Manage Standard Bills screen to modify bills generated by Costpoint. By doing so, you can alter some of the amounts that Costpoint has calculated for the billings. When you post the bills, these amounts are posted to history for future reference. If you do not select this check box, you cannot modify bills for this project on the Manage Standard Bills screen.

The best method of changing incorrect amounts on an invoice is to make the correction using the same source as the original transaction. For example, if an incorrect PLC is used on a project, you can correct it using a correcting timesheet. The Adjust Open Billing Detail Records utility also provides an efficient way to correct a billing. Changing the bill on the Manage Standard Bills screen causes a discrepancy between the bill and the source transactions.  

Bill Cost Incurred on Cash Basis

If you select this check box, Costpoint bills items from Costpoint Accounts Payable only if they have been paid. Transactions from Labor, Journal Entries, or Units Usage are billed automatically regardless of their payment status. Please note that you must flag accounts as cash basis accounts on the Manage Billing Accounts screen before you can select this check box to bill on a cash basis. You can also set up cash basis accounts by project on the Cash Basis subtask of this screen. After posting transactions to the project, you must run the Update Cash Basis Information screen before a cash basis bill can be calculated.

This check box is also used by the Calculate Progress Payment Bills screen to determine whether the bill is calculated as a "small" or "large business." Select this check box to compute the bill as a "large business" and use a cash basis billing. Leave this check box cleared to compute the bill as a "small business" and do not use a cash basis billing. Your company's designation as a small business is determined by the federal government.

Allow User to Adjust Transactions in Open Billing Detail

Use this check box to control the use of the Adjust Open Billing Detail Records screen. If you select this check box, users can transfer, write off, or put transactions on hold using the Adjust Open Billing Detail Records utility. Journal entries can be automatically created to record the adjustments. Do not select this check box if you want users to use original entry sources to make corrections to billings.

Customer Terms

Enter, or click to select, a terms code for this project. You can set up terms on the Manage Customer Terms screen.

Billing Cycle

If the Use Billing Cycles check box is selected and a default cycle is entered on the Configure Billing Settings screen, the default cycle displays in this field. You can enter a code or override the default code by selecting another valid billing cycle code. Costpoint uses this code when you calculate, modify, print, and post bills. If you are not using billing cycles, this field is unavailable. You can set up billing cycles on the Configure Billing Cycles screen. If the Use Billing Cycles check box is selected on the Configure Billing Settings screen, this is a required field.

Remittance Address

Enter, or click to select, a remittance address code for this project. This remittance address is printed on the top of the invoice. You can enter remittance addresses on the Manage Remittance Addresses screen. This is a required field.

Billing User Group

If you selected the Assign Bills to User Groups check box on the Configure Billing Settings screen, enter, or click to select, a valid user group code. Costpoint uses this code when you calculate, modify, print, and post bills. If you are not using billing user groups, this field is unavailable. If you selected the Assign Bills to User Groups check box in the Configure Billing Settings screen, this field is required. You can set up user groups on the Manage Billing User Groups screen.

Income State

Enter, or click to select, the state code that is identified with the project for tax purposes. You can enter state codes on the Manage States and Provinces screen.

Last Bill Number

If you selected the Enable Project Specific Bill Numbering check box on the Configure Billing Settings screen, enter the last bill number used by this project. This is an alphanumeric field. When the next bill is calculated, this number is incremented by one. You should end the last bill number entered here with at least three numeric characters so that Costpoint has at least 999 bill numbers to use. Refer to the documentation for the Last Company Wide Invoice No field on the Configure Billing Settings screen for more information on how Costpoint increments bill numbers.